The Path of Exile Website announces this weekend will be an open stress test event for the upcoming free-to-play action/RPG. They have a FAQ with all the details on how this will work, and offer the following overview: "The game has added a host of new features and content recently. The latest version adds a challenging Act Two boss fight, weapon swapping, and a new end-game system featuring Maps whose properties, risks and rewards can be modified by players. There is also a new layout for the game’s passive skill tree which features over 1300 skill nodes, allowing highly customized character builds and hybrid classes."

kunic wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 17:02:To everyone complaining about the game being always online, please stfu. The game is free-to-play. Do you honestly expect a LAN mode? That'd be like League of Legends or Dota 2 offering LAN as well (ie. stupid). It was a valid complaint with Diablo 3 because you paid $60 for it, but Path of Exile is completely free and not pay-to-win either.

You misread. Obviously, we're not expecting a F2P game to have an offline SP mode or a LAN mode. We want a traditional game that we pay for that has these things. We're saying that we want games with both offline and online functionality, and we're willing to pay for it. We're bemoaning the trend of more and more games toward always-online gameplay.

Thank you jdreyer, it's nice to know there is still intelligence out there on the internet. Yes, that was my original dissapointment, another ARPG being online only, that was all. I'll give PoE a try, it's free, which is $60 better then D3 already.

Agreed. Free-to-play and online-only go hand in hand, as they always have.

Which is a big reason I generally don't play F2P games. That, and by nature a great many of them are competitive multiplayer or MMO's. I don't find the former fun because I suck ass, and the latter is in my opinion a hopelessly broken genre in which any potential fun is buried under design limitations of the genre and massive grinding.

I will probably try PoE when it is closer to release, since Grim Dawn seems like it is becoming the Duke Nukem Forever of action RPG's, but I'm not expecting much.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

kunic wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 17:02:To everyone complaining about the game being always online, please stfu. The game is free-to-play. Do you honestly expect a LAN mode? That'd be like League of Legends or Dota 2 offering LAN as well (ie. stupid). It was a valid complaint with Diablo 3 because you paid $60 for it, but Path of Exile is completely free and not pay-to-win either.

You misread. Obviously, we're not expecting a F2P game to have an offline SP mode or a LAN mode. We want a traditional game that we pay for that has these things. We're saying that we want games with both offline and online functionality, and we're willing to pay for it. We're bemoaning the trend of more and more games toward always-online gameplay.

Just read through the patch notes for the big patch that came out this week, and now I really want to get back in and play some more. They've made some big changes, and a LOT of smaller changes that I've been wanting for a while. Tons of good stuff in this one.

kunic wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 17:02:To everyone complaining about the game being always online, please stfu. The game is free-to-play. Do you honestly expect a LAN mode? That'd be like League of Legends or Dota 2 offering LAN as well (ie. stupid). It was a valid complaint with Diablo 3 because you paid $60 for it, but Path of Exile is completely free and not pay-to-win either.

Agreed. Free-to-play and online-only go hand in hand, as they always have. You can't compare this to the Diablo 3 debacle just because they happen to share the same genre and gameplay style.

Being online only hasn't been too much of a problem for me so far, except for the fact that every name you come up with for your character has already been taken. I might as well just bang my head against the keyboard and use whatever comes up (oh wait, nobody's used Kunthammer yet, ). Also, randomized maps at the beginning of every new campaign is fine, but changing them mid-campaign kind of sucks.

To everyone complaining about the game being always online, please stfu. The game is free-to-play. Do you honestly expect a LAN mode? That'd be like League of Legends or Dota 2 offering LAN as well (ie. stupid). It was a valid complaint with Diablo 3 because you paid $60 for it, but Path of Exile is completely free and not pay-to-win either.

There's just a ton of things they're doing right, but its not care beary so those who don't have the patience to learn a new system may be put off. There is a TON of shit going on in this game - you'll constantly have those "Oh I wish I knew that!" moments which is a welcome rarity these days.

I'll try it out, shit it's free, so no harm no foul if I don't like it.

Undocumented Alien wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 13:44:I don't mind an online OPTIONAL component, I just don't see a valid reason why it has to be ONLINE ONLY (same as D3, outside of game design).

I see that they are going with a F2P model with Cash Shop which is fine, but I'd rather just pay them $50 and be done with it. If they want to have an optional B.NET like component that is funded by a cash shop (for ongoing maint, etc) that would be awesome and I would support it when I was home and could play smoothly. But I'm just not digging this direction of online only (especially non-MMO) with ARGP's which require smooth control to do well (target, etc). Even on my FIOS connection (and < 100 ms Ping) D3 bounces me around, it's not acceptable. Economies for games are a joke, D3's economy is already dead.

I'll help them load up the server and stress it, check the game out, but I'm not keen on supporting this direction for any game company, there ARE still ARGP's coming out with SP/MP options, they'll need to see some love so things like that will continue.

I hope this game is fun and hope that people who don't care about always on for non-MMO's enjoy it, but doesn't mean that because I won't support it that it is beating a dead horse. I am dissapointed to learn that it's online only.. another ARPG that I probably won't support and there are so few as it is.

I feel the same way, and lack of offline play is exactly the reason why I didn't get D3, but will be picking up TL2 (which is great BTW, I played the free beta weekend a couple of months ago). I'll check this out, just like I'll check out Mechwarrior, but without SP offline play (and a campaign in MW's case) I don't see myself putting any cash into these.

Undocumented Alien wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 13:44:I don't mind an online OPTIONAL component, I just don't see a valid reason why it has to be ONLINE ONLY (same as D3, outside of game design).

I see that they are going with a F2P model with Cash Shop which is fine, but I'd rather just pay them $50 and be done with it. If they want to have an optional B.NET like component that is funded by a cash shop (for ongoing maint, etc) that would be awesome and I would support it when I was home and could play smoothly. But I'm just not digging this direction of online only (especially non-MMO) with ARGP's which require smooth control to do well (target, etc). Even on my FIOS connection (and < 100 ms Ping) D3 bounces me around, it's not acceptable. Economies for games are a joke, D3's economy is already dead.

I'll help them load up the server and stress it, check the game out, but I'm not keen on supporting this direction for any game company, there ARE still ARGP's coming out with SP/MP options, they'll need to see some love so things like that will continue.

I hope this game is fun and hope that people who don't care about always on for non-MMO's enjoy it, but doesn't mean that because I won't support it that it is beating a dead horse. I am dissapointed to learn that it's online only.. another ARPG that I probably won't support and there are so few as it is.

It being a free to play game, unless you buy something, technically your not supporting them, you're just a drain on their rescources, though you could argue your prescence alone is a form of support. I'm not surprised to see this as an online only game...I can't think of any free-to-play game that is, then again I don't check out a lot of free to play games, so maybe I'm just ignorant in this regard. Needless to say with a f2p model you need to generate revenue somehow, and being able to control the system will work in your favor (though certainly won't proof you against issues that might crop up.)

on a side note of it being f2p...so far the only things they have expressed that they'll have to buy is more character slots and more stash space. I don't know if that's going to be enough to generate the kind of revenues they want/need. We'll see, of course. I'm certainly okay with those options as it certainly shows its not a pay-to-win game.

Undocumented Alien wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 13:44:I don't mind an online OPTIONAL component, I just don't see a valid reason why it has to be ONLINE ONLY (same as D3, outside of game design).

I see that they are going with a F2P model with Cash Shop which is fine, but I'd rather just pay them $50 and be done with it. If they want to have an optional B.NET like component that is funded by a cash shop (for ongoing maint, etc) that would be awesome and I would support it when I was home and could play smoothly. But I'm just not digging this direction of online only (especially non-MMO) with ARGP's which require smooth control to do well (target, etc). Even on my FIOS connection (and < 100 ms Ping) D3 bounces me around, it's not acceptable. Economies for games are a joke, D3's economy is already dead.

I'll help them load up the server and stress it, check the game out, but I'm not keen on supporting this direction for any game company, there ARE still ARGP's coming out with SP/MP options, they'll need to see some love so things like that will continue.

I hope this game is fun and hope that people who don't care about always on for non-MMO's enjoy it, but doesn't mean that because I won't support it that it is beating a dead horse. I am dissapointed to learn that it's online only.. another ARPG that I probably won't support and there are so few as it is.

The only thing "necessary" to buy imo is the extra inventory space - game is totally NOT p2w - the devs are truly on the ball listening to folks and damn adept at their jobs.

As for the economy, wait till you try PoE. Its the first game I feel will actually have an economy because its based entirely on item and orb trade values - there is no gold.

There's just a ton of things they're doing right, but its not care beary so those who don't have the patience to learn a new system may be put off. There is a TON of shit going on in this game - you'll constantly have those "Oh I wish I knew that!" moments which is a welcome rarity these days.

Undocumented Alien wrote on Jul 24, 2012, 13:44:I don't mind an online OPTIONAL component, I just don't see a valid reason why it has to be ONLINE ONLY (same as D3, outside of game design).

I see that they are going with a F2P model with Cash Shop which is fine, but I'd rather just pay them $50 and be done with it. If they want to have an optional B.NET like component that is funded by a cash shop (for ongoing maint, etc) that would be awesome and I would support it when I was home and could play smoothly. But I'm just not digging this direction of online only (especially non-MMO) with ARGP's which require smooth control to do well (target, etc). Even on my FIOS connection (and < 100 ms Ping) D3 bounces me around, it's not acceptable. Economies for games are a joke, D3's economy is already dead.

I'll help them load up the server and stress it, check the game out, but I'm not keen on supporting this direction for any game company, there ARE still ARGP's coming out with SP/MP options, they'll need to see some love so things like that will continue.

I hope this game is fun and hope that people who don't care about always on for non-MMO's enjoy it, but doesn't mean that because I won't support it that it is beating a dead horse. I am dissapointed to learn that it's online only.. another ARPG that I probably won't support and there are so few as it is.

I'm not wild about the online-only aspect either. Wish there was at least the option of playing offline, even if it's a completely sandboxed character that can never be used online.

That said, I have other things I can play when I travel, and the game works well for me from home. I think the only things that D3 really does better than PoE are animations and environment interaction, but the game still looks pretty good. New patch just came out that includes the new skill tree and the endgame map content. I'm looking forward to jumping back in to see if I can improve my Shadow character with the new tree. He was kinda gimped by the old one.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

I don't mind an online OPTIONAL component, I just don't see a valid reason why it has to be ONLINE ONLY (same as D3, outside of game design).

I see that they are going with a F2P model with Cash Shop which is fine, but I'd rather just pay them $50 and be done with it. If they want to have an optional B.NET like component that is funded by a cash shop (for ongoing maint, etc) that would be awesome and I would support it when I was home and could play smoothly. But I'm just not digging this direction of online only (especially non-MMO) with ARGP's which require smooth control to do well (target, etc). Even on my FIOS connection (and < 100 ms Ping) D3 bounces me around, it's not acceptable. Economies for games are a joke, D3's economy is already dead.

I'll help them load up the server and stress it, check the game out, but I'm not keen on supporting this direction for any game company, there ARE still ARGP's coming out with SP/MP options, they'll need to see some love so things like that will continue.

I hope this game is fun and hope that people who don't care about always on for non-MMO's enjoy it, but doesn't mean that because I won't support it that it is beating a dead horse. I am dissapointed to learn that it's online only.. another ARPG that I probably won't support and there are so few as it is.

Who gives a fuck about it being online only, seriously thats like such a lame ass dead horse beating. Gameplay is all that matters.

It matters a "fucking" lot. Some people leave their Mom's basement with a solid LAN connection to play games, sometimes on the road working, or sometimes overseas protecting. I've tried games like D3 online (buddies account) from hotels and it sucks ass, gameplay means nothing when you are getting bounced all over the screen.

This is now a "maybe" (very maybe) buy.

The game owns in everything that made oldschool rpgs like diablo own.

Maybe, but I played all of those "oldschool" ARPGs either offline (max performance) or over LAN.

Again, maybe TL2 or Grim Dawn, games that will give me options of play modes.